Lady Rebels senior puts numbers on the board

Feb. 27, 2014

Updated Feb. 25, 2014 4:02 p.m.

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Savanna water polo player Patricia Galaz led all Orange County players in goals scored this winter. The senior also broke the school record for goals scored in a single season (126). BRIAN WHITEHEAD, STAFF

Savanna water polo player Patricia Galaz led all Orange County players in goals scored this winter. The senior also broke the school record for goals scored in a single season (126).BRIAN WHITEHEAD, STAFF

Patricia Galaz's top-scoring games

Patricia Galaz scores goals, and that’s as fundamental and mundane as it sounds.

Galaz, a senior water polo player at Savanna High, doesn’t have a trademark shot. She doesn’t summon a post-goal celebration or possess what would be considered a flair for the dramatic.

She just scores goals. At an alarming rate.

To her, though, that’s nothing special. In her opinion, anyone can do it.

“My teammates give me credit,” Galaz said, “but I don’t think they take as much credit as they should. Without them, I wouldn’t be scoring goals at all.”

Galaz, 17, hesitates when asked what she thinks her legacy at Savanna will be. There is an obvious answer.

She has seen her numbers this season; her goals scored, her multitude of multi-goal games, her majority share of the Rebels’ total scoring. When leading Orange County in those categories as she does, the numbers are impossible to miss.

Galaz wants to be remembered by future classes, however, for the work that went in to garnering those distinctions.

“I want people to know that I didn’t give up when the team was down,” said Galaz, a three-year letterman. “And that I always had a good attitude, and that I wasn’t snobby. Then, I want them to realize I was good at water polo.”

At the time of Savanna’s final match, Galaz led the county with 138 goals scored this season. She’d played in three less matches than her closest challenger and four less than Nos. 3 and 4.

Galaz averaged a shade less than five goals every time she took the pool, and Savanna finished the 2013-14 campaign Orange League co-champions.

(The Lady Rebels lost to Palm Desert High, 15-3, on Saturday in the second round of the Division 6 playoffs. They completed the season with a 21-9 overall record.)

“You’ve heard of a franchise player,” Savanna coach Dennis Nelson said. “At our program, we don’t have club players. None of our girls played water polo before they got here, and maybe one or two even swam.

“Patty is one of those kids. If you would’ve seen her during her freshman year, she’s really blossomed into quite the young lady.”

Two years ago, senior Nichole Martin set Savanna’s record for goals scored in a single season with 126. She was a swimmer and a softball player, which gave her the ideal attributes to haunt goalies’ dreams.

Galaz was a sophomore that 2011-12 winter season, and still quite the novice when it came to water polo.

Karate, softball and cheerleading were Galaz’s activities of choice growing up. Athleticism ran in her blood, and Galaz began high school a malleable competitor.

A friend encouraged Galaz to try out for Savanna’s swim team as an alternative to taking the requisite physical education class. Swim was Galaz’s gateway to water polo.

“I never thought I’d be good enough to play on varsity,” she said. “I wished I could be like them. When I started water polo, I didn’t know anything. It was tough getting used to.”

Galaz came within five goals of Martin’s record last season, finishing her junior year second in the county in goals scored. Savanna won the Orange League championship outright and reached the second round of the postseason.

Galaz returned this winter an improved leader. She admitted she was aware of Martin’s record, but added that breaking it wasn’t a priority.

If the record fell, Galaz said, as Savanna won matches, then so be it.

“Having other scoring threats opened things up for Patty,” Nelson said. “And she has opened things up for other girls. … It’s easier to throw the ball to a teammate when you know she will do something with it.”

Galaz set the program’s new scoring mark on Jan. 23. She scored seven goals, giving her 128 for the season, in a 14-1 victory over Katella High.

Similar to most water polo players from lesser-known high school programs, junior college will be where Galaz hones her craft. Fullerton College, she said, will be the right fit next fall.

“I have a lot to improve,” Galaz said. “High school was one step. College is the next step. It’ll be much harder, but I’ll push myself. I’m not going to give up.”

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